Don't Touch My Junk..

[kshillbillys]

By Suzanne Choney
msnbc.com msnbc.com
updated 11/20/2010 11:51:31 AM ET 2010-11-20T16:51:31
Share Print Font: +-A longtime Charlotte, N.C., flight attendant and cancer survivor told a local television station  that she was forced to show her prosthetic breast during a pat-down.

Cathy Bossi, who works for U.S. Airways, said she received the pat-down after declining to do the full-body scan because of radiation concerns.

The TSA screener "put her full hand on my breast and said, 'What is this?' " Bossi told the station. "And I said, 'It's my prosthesis because I've had breast cancer.' And she said, 'Well, you'll need to show me that.' "

Bossi said she removed the prosthetic from her bra. She did not take the name of the agent, she said, "because it was just so horrific of an experience, I couldn't believe someone had done that to me. I'm a flight attendant. I was just trying to get to work."

For Americans who wear prosthetics — either because they are cancer survivors or have lost a limb — or who have undergone hip replacements or have a pacemaker, the humiliation of the TSA's new security procedures — choosing between a body scan or body search — is even worse.

Musa Mayer has worn a breast prosthesis for 21 years since her mastectomy and is used to the alarms it sets off at airport security. But nothing prepared her for the "invasive and embarrassing" experience of being patted down, poked and examined recently while passing through airport security at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.

"I asked the supervisor if she realized that there are 3 million women who have had breast cancer in the U.S., many of whom wear breast prostheses. Will each of us now have to undergo this humiliating, time-consuming routine every time we pass through one of these new body scanners?" she said in an e-mail to msnbc.com.
'I was so humiliated'
Marlene McCarthy of Rhode Island said she went through the body scanner and was told by a TSA agent to step aside. In "full view of everyone," McCarthy said in an e-mail, the agent "immediately put the back of her hand on my right side chest and I explained I wore a prosthesis.

"Then, she put her full hands ... one on top and one on the bottom of my 'breast' and moved the prosthesis left, right, up, down and said 'OK.' I was so humiliated.

"I went to the desk area and complained," McCarthy wrote. "The woman there was very nice and I asked her if the training included an understanding of how prosthetics are captured on the scanner and told her the pat-down is embarrassing. She said, 'We have never even had that discussion and I do the training for the TSA employees here, following the standard manual provided.' She said she will bring it up at their next meeting."

If she has to go through the scanner again, McCarthy said, "I am determined to put the prosthesis in the gray bucket," provided to travelers at the security check-ins for items such as jewelry.

"Let the TSA scanners be embarrassed .... not me anymore!" she wrote.


Sharon Kiss, 66, has a pacemaker, but also has to fly often for her work.

"During a recent enhanced pat-down, a screener cupped my breasts and felt my genitals," she said in an e-mail to msnbc.com "To 'clear my waistband' she put her hands down my pants and groped for the waistband of my underwear.

"I expressed humiliation and was told 'You have the choice not to fly.' "

The remark infuriated Kiss, who lives in Mendocino, Calif. "Extrapolate this to we should not provide curb cuts and ramps for people confined to wheelchairs because they can choose to stay home ... This a violation of civil rights. And because I have a disability, I should not be subjected to what is government-sanctioned sexual assault in order to board a plane."



No planned changes to security
So far, the government is not letting up on the enhanced screening program. TSA administrator John Pistole said this week at a Congressional hearing on the matter that "reasonable people can disagree" on how to properly balance safety at the nation's airports, but that the new security measures are necessary because of intelligence on latest attack methods that might be used by terrorists.

Gail Mengel, of Blue Springs, Mo., is used to being patted down; she had a hip replacement five years ago.
"I admit that I was relieved when I flew last week and was able to spend a few seconds in front of the X-ray screen in Seattle and Denver," she said in an e-mail to msnbc.com. "I have heard medical experts say the level of radiation will not hurt us. And frankly I was happy to realize I won't have my body touched, patted and rubbed anymore.

"Unfortunately last weekend, I arrived at the New Orleans airport and learned that airport staff (was) still being trained in using the X-ray machine. Because my hip replacement sets off the security buzzer, I was faced with the new regulations."

While she is "used to" being patted down, "this experience was certainly much more personal, uncomfortable and embarrassing," she said. "Every part of my body was touched. I do not want to be harmed by radiation, but the experience was painless and quick compared to what I have faced over the last five years. I support security measures but I also hope we can be assured of safe procedures."

One man, from Nashville, wrote in an e-mail that "as a handicapped person, I am sick and tired of being 'raped' at the security line. I lose my crutches and leg orthotics to be 'nuked' by the X-ray machine. Then manhandled by the pat-down, followed by chemical swabbing for 'possible explosives.' ...Enough is enough."

Said Mayer, the longtime breast cancer survivor: "I am outraged that I will now be forced to show my prosthesis to strangers, remove it and put in the X-ray bin for screening, or not to wear it at all whenever I fly. To me, this seems unfairly discriminatory and embarrassing for me, and for all breast cancer survivors."

[Teresa]

[Diane Amberg]

I'd heard about these, first time I ever saw one though. Hope all the gunpowder on you doesn't activate it.

[Teresa]

Ha~~ Don't carry gunpowder on me.. Heck I have to check everything in beforehand.. carry guns , competition guns..ammo, holsters.. knives...
Just think how safe everyone would be on that plane if I could strap on and carry all my stuff. 

[Patriot]

Hey, diane, tell me again how it can't/ain't gonna happen!


TSA Searches: Are Trains and Subways Next?

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
November 22, 2010

John Pistole, the TSA boss, has implored activists to rethink their "opt-out" protest this week. Pistole warns that the national protest against naked body scanners and intrusive pat downs at airports would be a mistake and will only serve to "tie up people who want to go home and see their loved ones," according to the Associated Press.

If John Pistole and the federal government have their way, we may have to opt-out of taking the subway or riding a train in the near future.    
   
"I understand people's frustrations," said president Obama from Lisbon over the weekend. Obama said at present naked body scanners and pat down searches bordering on sexual molestation are the best way to prevent Muslims in caves from attacking the American people. Secretary of State Clinton told Meet the Press on Sunday that "everyone, including our security experts, are looking for ways to diminish the impact on the traveling public" and that "striking the right balance is what this is about."

For now, that "balance" means a near minimum wage TSA worker will fondle your testicles and there is nothing you can do about it. Protesting will only slow down traffic and prevent people from visiting their family and friends.

Obama and Clinton expect you to bite the bullet and accept what amounts to sexual molestation in order to board a commercial airplane in the United States. Pistole said it really is not a big deal because "a very small percent" of people are subject to the process of submission and humiliation.

If past comments made by Mr. Pistole are any indicator, however, the government would like to see naked body scanners and intrusive pat downs expand from airports to train stations and subway platforms.

Soon after taking over the TSA earlier this year, the former FBI deputy director Pistole told USA Today that he will work to expand airport Gestapo zones. "Protecting riders on mass-transit systems from terrorist attacks will be as high a priority as ensuring safe air travel, the new head of the Transportation Security Administration promises," the newspaper reported on July 17.

"Given the list of threats on subways and rails over the last six years going on seven years, we know that some terrorist groups see rail and subways as being more vulnerable because there's not the type of screening that you find in aviation," Pistole said. "From my perspective, that is an equally important threat area."

In addition, Pistole said he would like to see TSA workers, including 47,000 screeners at 450 airports, to operate as a "national-security, counterterrorism organization, fully integrated into U.S. government efforts." He wants to "take TSA to the next level."

Earlier this month, the TSA implemented the "enhanced" security procedures that are now coming under fire and have resulted in countless people refusing to fly and the roll out of the national opt-out campaign that will commence on November 24 across the country.

If John Pistole and the federal government have their way, we may have to opt-out of taking the subway or riding a train in the near future.

It may not be long before you are forced through a naked body scanner or obliged to have your genitals groped in order to visit the local market to buy food and necessities. Considering the trajectory the TSA and the government are on, you may have to submit to a body cavity search at the local mall.

The Pentagon and local law enforcement are ahead of the curve. "As the privacy controversy around full-body security scans begins to simmer, it's worth noting that courthouses and airport security checkpoints aren't the only places where backscatter x-ray vision is being deployed. The same technology, capable of seeing through clothes and walls, has also been rolling out on U.S. Streets," Andy Greenberg wrote for Forbes in August. "While the biggest buyer of AS&E's [roving x-ay] machines over the last seven years has been the Department of Defense operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, Reiss says law enforcement agencies have also deployed the vans to search for vehicle-based bombs in the U.S."

There are few if any "vehicle-based bombs" on U.S. roads, not that this fact has prevented the government from claiming it is a threat. The DHS released a memo "stating that terrorists may try to kill innocent women, children and men in the United States by hiding IEDs in luggage left at airports," Fox News reported not long after patsy and barbeque grill gas canister non-bomber Faisal Shahzad was arrested.

For anyone in denial, consider that the TSA has already beta tested searching Greyhound bus terminals in Florida. In 2005, the agency used the Madrid bombings as an excuse to train officers to use bomb sniffing dogs in mass transit stations. "The agency's broader role overseeing all forms of public transportation and the increased terrorist threat to mass transit indicated by train bombings in Madrid and London have caused the canine program to expand significantly in recent years, the TSA's Web site reports," according to the U.S. Air Force.

As early as 2005, teams of undercover air marshals and uniformed law enforcement officers swamped bus and train stations, ferries, and mass transit facilities across the country. The TSA dubbed the paramilitary effort "Viper," short for "Visible Intermodal Protection and Response" teams. The TSA has been beta-testing a federal takeover of all transportation which constitutes a huge violation the ten amendment in spades.

Finally, the Department of Homeland Security has developed FAST, or Future Attribute Screening Technology, to detect "hostile thoughts" by screening people at airports and special events. See the video below. The technology is like something out of a Philip K. Dick short story.

Article & video here:  http://www.infowars.com/tsa-searches-are-trains-and-subways-next/

[Teresa]

Compliments of  Debbie Lane..

[Teresa]

And the absolute incompetence continues..
This would be funny if not so damned tragic for our country.



Another TSA Outrage

Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)

Thursday, November 18th at 6:28PM EST
106 Comments

UPDATE: I'm getting a lot of emails asking if this is actually true and is this person actually someone I know. (1) Yes it is true — it is too absurd to be made up. (2) Yes, I know the person.

A friend of mine sent me this about his TSA experience. He, unlike most of us, was coming back into the country from Afghanistan on a military charter.

——–

As the Chalk Leader for my flight home from Afghanistan, I witnessed the following:

When we were on our way back from Afghanistan, we flew out of Baghram Air Field. We went through customs at BAF, full body scanners (no groping), had all of our bags searched, the whole nine yards.

Our first stop was Shannon, Ireland to refuel. After that, we had to stop at Indianapolis, Indiana to drop off about 100 folks from the Indiana National Guard. That's where the stupid started.

First, everyone was forced to get off the plane–even though the plane wasn't refueling again. All 330 people got off that plane, rather than let the 100 people from the ING get off. We were filed from the plane to a holding area. No vending machines, no means of escape. Only a male/female latrine.

It's probably important to mention that we were ALL carrying weapons. Everyone was carrying an M4 Carbine (rifle) and some, like me, were also carrying an M9 pistol. Oh, and our gunners had M-240B machine guns. Of course, the weapons weren't loaded. And we had been cleared of all ammo well before we even got to customs at Baghram, then AGAIN at customs.

The TSA personnel at the airport seriously considered making us unload all of the baggage from the SECURE cargo hold to have it reinspected. Keep in mind, this cargo had been unpacked, inspected piece by piece by U.S. Customs officials, resealed and had bomb-sniffing dogs give it a one-hour run through. After two hours of sitting in this holding area, the TSA decided not to reinspect our Cargo–just to inspect us again: Soldiers on the way home from war, who had already been inspected, reinspected and kept in a SECURE holding area for 2 hours. Ok, whatever. So we lined up to go through security AGAIN.

This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.

So we're in line, going through one at a time. One of our Soldiers had his Gerber multi-tool. TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous, but it gets better. A few minutes later, a guy empties his pockets and has a pair of nail clippers. Nail clippers. TSA informs the Soldier that they're going to confiscate his nail clippers. The conversation went something like this:

TSA Guy: You can't take those on the plane.

Soldier: What? I've had them since we left country.

TSA Guy: You're not suppose to have them.

Soldier: Why?

TSA Guy: They can be used as a weapon.

Soldier: [touches butt stock of the rifle] But this actually is a weapon. And I'm allowed to take it on.

TSA Guy: Yeah but you can't use it to take over the plane. You don't have bullets.

Soldier: And I can take over the plane with nail clippers?

TSA Guy: [awkward silence]

Me: Dude, just give him your damn nail clippers so we can get the f**k out of here. I'll buy you a new set.

Soldier: [hands nail clippers to TSA guy, makes it through security]

This might be a good time to remind everyone that approximately 233 people re-boarded that plane with assault rifles, pistols, and machine guns–but nothing that could have been used as a weapon.

http://www.redstate.com/erick/2010/11/18/another-tsa-outrage/

[redcliffsw]

The upside of airport outrages
- Dr. Thomas Sowell

No country has better airport security than Israel – and no country needs it more, since Israel is the most hated target of Islamic extremist terrorists. Yet, somehow, Israeli airport security people don't have to strip passengers naked electronically or have strangers feeling their private parts.

Does anyone seriously believe that we have better airport security than Israel? Is our security record better than theirs?

"Security" may be the excuse being offered for the outrageous things being done to American air travelers, but the heavy-handed arrogance and contempt for ordinary people that is the hallmark of this administration in other areas is all too painfully apparent in these new and invasive airport procedures.

Can you remember a time when a Cabinet member in a free America boasted of having his "foot on the neck" of some business or when the president of the United States threatened on television to put his foot on another part of some citizens' anatomy?

read more:

http://www.wnd.com/index.php/index.php?pageId=231637

[Diane Amberg]

Patriot,You are a worse smart Alec than I am and what you did to me is exactly how misinformation gets spread so fast. I never said trains were never going to have tighter security, I said they don't right now! Get it right will ya! I even told about my trip up the east corridor last spring. By the way, Teresa, since you may fly again before I do, ask them why they aren't using the bomb sniffing dogs anymore? I think I'd rather be goosed by a dog than manhandled by a person.   Eventually we'll find out what is really going on. Maybe someone is about to come out with a new machine that will seem so civilized as compared to this touchy stuff that everyone will clamor for it and someone will make kazillions. By the way, someone recently told me that we can't profile because it's considered unconstitutional.Thought you'd laugh at that. Other countries can profile because they don't have our constitution to hold them back. Please note I didn't say I agreed, I just passed on what I was told.

[Teresa]

Assuming that TSA starts checking people at bus and train and subway stations.
Does anyone wonder what's going to happen the first time they "frisk" someone and find a legal CCW in a LEGAL situation?  Last time I checked CCW is not illegal on most inner city mass transit. So someone who is just doing what they have always done is going to get completely run through the ringer for doing something that is completely legal.

Any bets that the blue shirt (hmm~~~ I wonder why blue, what other socialist organization is fond of baby blue   ) that pats him down over reacts and tazes the poor guy?

~~~~
Unless you have had to check and recheck your firearms.. ammo etc at an airport.. you haven't yet known the meaning of "fun".. NOT!!

Unlike local subways trains and buses...
Amtrack and Grey Hound have always had a very strict no guns.. period! rules.  That includes checked bags.
That is about to change..at least for Amtrak.  So.. now~~if we travel by Amtrack train we all get to take the firearms and ammo with us.. BUT..get to deal with all the hassle that goes with it..
Guess it's better than having to send them ahead by postal. But ..........all I want to do is have mine with me.. Not too much to ask is it? I mean..I'm a legal Carry citizen with all the right background checks etc.. all I want to do is be able to carry  while traveling so I can rightfully protect myself... sighhhhh...  

From the Amtrak site

Firearms in Checked Baggage.

The Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2010, enacted into law on December 16, 2009, requires Amtrak to implement the procedures necessary to provide storage and carriage of firearms in checked baggage cars and at Amtrak stations that accept checked baggage, within one year of the bill's enactment. This requirement applies solely to checked baggage, not carry-on baggage.

Amtrak's current policy prohibits all firearms, ammunition and other weapons aboard its trains. This includes any being carried on the person, in carry-on baggage or in checked baggage. Please be advised that this policy remains in effect until Amtrak begins firearms carriage in checked baggage on December 15, 2010; starting on this date all passengers wishing to check firearms or ammunition will be required to follow the Firearms Policy.


Firearms in Checked Baggage

Effective December 15, 2010, passengers will be allowed to check unloaded firearms and ammunition between Amtrak stations and on Amtrak trains that offer checked baggage service. The following policies apply:

Notification that the passenger will be checking firearms/ammunition must be made no later than 24 hours before train departure by calling Amtrak at 800-USA-RAIL. Online reservations for firearms/ammunition are not accepted.

All firearms and/or ammunition must be checked at least 30 minutes prior to train departure. Some larger stations require that baggage be checked earlier.

All firearms (rifles, shotguns, handguns, starter pistols) must be unloaded and in an approved, locked hard-sided container not exceeding 62" L x 17" W x 7" D (1575 mm x 432 mm x 178 mm). The passenger must have sole possession of the key or the combination for the lock to the container. The weight of the container may not exceed 50 lb/23 kg.

Smaller locked, hard-sided containers containing smaller unloaded firearms such as handguns and starter pistols must be securely stored within a suitcase or other item of checked baggage, but the existence of such a firearm must be declared.

All ammunition carried must be securely packed in the original manufacturer's container; in fiber, wood, or metal boxes; or in other packaging specifically designed to carry small amounts of ammunition. The maximum weight of all ammunition and containers may not exceed 11 lb/5 kg.
The passenger is responsible for knowing and following all federal, state, and local firearm laws at all jurisdictions to and through which he or she will be traveling.

All other Amtrak checked baggage policies apply, including limits on the number of pieces of checked baggage, the maximum weight of each piece (50 lb/23 kg).

Firearms/ammunition may not be carried in carry-on baggage; therefore, checked baggage must be available on all trains and at all stations in the passenger's itinerary.

At the time of check-in, passengers will be required to complete and sign a two-part Declaration Form.
BB guns and Compressed Air Guns (to include paintball markers), are to be treated as firearms and must comply with the above firearms policy. Canisters, tanks, or other devices containing propellants must be emptied prior to checking and securely packaged within the contents of the passenger's luggage.

Notice: Passengers failing to meet the above-mentioned requirements for checking firearms will be denied transportation.